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AN ORATION 



ON" THK DEATH OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 






B-^ lE^OLIPE S- S^TJISriDEI^S. 



DELIVERED ON ISLAND 40, APRIL 25, 1865. 



Tkl E ]VI F H I S : 

W. A. WHITMORE, STEAM HOOK AND JOB PRINTER, NO. 13 MADISON STREET. 

1865. 



i 



VN ORATION 



ON THE DEATH OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



'» I ' — ■ » 



BY IROLIFE S. S^XJZ-TIDEI?>S. 



mimm) m imb ki mii 25, \m 




W. A. WHITIIQRK, STEAM HOOK AND .101! PRINTER, NO. 13 MADISON STREET. 

]805. 



F..51 



OR^TIOISr. 



Fellow-Citizens : 

Wo live in one of the most eventful 
perif>dsiof the workl's liistoiy since the dawn of civilization 
upon earth. Not a day passes but some thrilling incident 
occurs — seme deed, dark and bloody, is committed — some 
startling event transpires — some brilliant achievement wit- 
nessed, — which wnll furnisli material tliat will live in history 
or in song. The annals of the world afford few parallels to 
what the American people have witnessed — the scenes and 
hardships they have passed through — the part in the great 
drama they have acted, in the past four years of bloody war. 
The "dark ftges' — the horrors of the French Eevolution — 
the iniquities ^of the Spanish Inquisition — the treachery, 
perfidy and barbarity of Italian scenes — &nd the ferocity of 
savage warfare, — present not a page so dark and damning, 
mournful and heart-rending — so diabolical and wicked, and 
so cruelly inexcusable, as has blighted and blasted the fair 
name of our Country in that short space of time. All 
Christendom stands aghast at the horrid picture, and Hu- 
manity weeps tears of blood over the sad reality it presents. 
It is left for the middle of the nineteenth Century, with the 
lights of Christianity and Civilization before them, for the 



4. ORATION. 



American people to shock the world, and put in awe, all 
mankind, at the hideous deeds of blood perpetrated " in the 
name of libert}"," by a race of people claiming the first rank 
among the nations of the earth ! That a people so enlight- 
ened — a people professing love for God and a belief in the 
Christian Eeligion — a people blessed above and beyond any 
other on earth — a people, happy, prosperous, free and un- 
trarameled — living in a land of liberty — better educated, as 
a whole, than any other nation of Ancient or Modern times 
— surrounded by everj^ blessing they could ask, and the pro- 
tection of the best government which God ever bestowed 
upon man, since the fall of Adam j — that such a favored 
people, should, in an evil hour, bring upon themselves and 
their posterity such untold evils as we have been cursed 
with, is indeed, a most strange and unaccountable an*mflfly. 
We have assembled together to-day on a most solemn and 
momentous occasion, to express, if possible, our deep sense 
of the bereavement the country has sustained in the sad and 
ti^agic death of the illustrious ai\d lionored CUiief Magistrate 
of this great Nation. For the first time in the history of 
our government are we called upon to mourn the death of 
our President b}'^ the blood}'^ hand of assassination. The 
whole land is filled with mourning. The lamentations of 
soi'row flow from every heart. Men weep, who but a day 
before had no tears to shed for any human being on earth. 
The language of sorrow and distress gush forth spontane- 
ously from every bosom. Abraham Lincoln, the President 
of the United States, has fallen by the bloody hand of a 
fiendish assassin. It was a most terrible blow to our dis- 
tracted country, particularly at this most critical juncture 
in our aftairs. It is the saddest blow ever aimed at the peace 
and happiness of a great nation. Benedict Arnold betra3^ed 
the cause of his countiy ; Aaron Burr plotted treason 
against her Constitution and Laws ; Jeff. Davis lifted his 



ORATION. 5. 

impious hand to strike down her liberties and destroy the 
great work of our Fathers ; but the severest and most fear- 
ful blow ev^er aimed dt the vitals of onr eountvv, by any 
man, was inflicted bgf^J. Wilkes Booth w- t j on -l»e struek 
down Abraham Lincoln ! 

We were just emerging from a long and bloody night oi' 
lour years' war — such a war as had never before blackened 
the annals of time. For the first time since the commence- 
ment, was a gleam of the joyous light of Peace seen to dawn 
upon the impenetrable gloom that hung as a pall of death 
over our country and destruction to our people. Patriotic 
exultation ran high in eveiy honest heart at the glorious — 
the heavenly prospect of Peace, and the return of law and 
order. The giant contest between the master military 
chieftains of the age, one for the vindication and maintenance 
of his government, and the other battling for the establish- 
ment of his — a contest in which the fote of the great 
struggle seemed to be staked, turned the scales. The victor, 
greater than Alexander, Caesar or Napoleon, Avith the (God- 
like impulses of Washington, tendered the welcome olive 
branch to his " erring brethren ;" and the great leader — the 
humane, unselfish and patriotic chief, accepted the magnani- 
mous terms, and surrendered to the flag of his Country ! Tt 
was the sublimest spectacle ever witnessed in the military 
history of the world. The terms offered and accepted wei-e 
such as had never before been granted by an army flushed 
with victory ; — such terms as only an American and a patriot, 
who loved his Country and her welfare above every other 
consideration, could offer; and every honest heart in the 
nation lelt that at last, after a long and bloody struggle, 
peace was to be restored, and our people, laying aside the 
bloody implements of war, were again to become '•' one and 
inseparable," free, prosperous and happy. 

Such were the auspicious onvens of peace to onr distracted 



6. ORATION. 



land, when one of the moBt wicked and diabolical deeds 
known in the book of crime, was perpetrated ; and our 
whole country filled with a _i;-loom and sadness which had 
never beXore. pervaded it, even wheiii; t'he sainted spirit of 
the immortal Father of his Country was called from earth 
to the blessed abode of the Just made Perfect. 

It is not uncommon, now-a-days, to hear zealous partizan 
friends of fiivoi-ite leaders attribute to them a comparison to 
AVashinoton. Kespect to the memory of the illustrious 
Father of his Country, as well as to all men who may live 
after him, forbid the use of all such comparisons. No man 
has lived, or is likely ever to live, who is entitled to that 
distinction. Wastttnoton possessed a rare combination of 
virtues and excellencies, Avhich all may strive to emulate, 
but none claim to equal. Parallels have been instituted 
between great minds that have been the terrtn- or the glory 
of their age: comparisons are urged concerning the precepts 
of philosophers, the codes of reformers and the achievements 
of conqueroi's; but in them is no mention of George Wash- 
ington. He stands alone, a character without a prototype 
and without a successor. The Eevolutionist who led man- 
kind to Liberty : the Statesman who constructed the edifice 
of Freedom : the Conqueror who laid down his sword in 
the hour of triumph : the Ivuler who abdicated power in the 
zenith of his popularity : the Man who could look down 
from the loftiest pinnacle of human greatness without 
dizziness, and look up from the humble sphere of the citizen 
without envy! 

"No lii";-' can cover liislliigh fame but heaven, 
No pyramids set-oif his memories 
But the eternal substance of his greatness: 
To which I leave him," 

Bolivar was a gallant soldier, a wise statesman and an in- 
corruptible patriot; but when flushed with success, in the 



ORATION. 



hour of triumph, proclaimed himself " the Washington of 
the South." All mankind smiled with contempt at his 
presumptuous arrogance. 

Select your favorite of all the great men who have " ruled, 
reigned or fell " in Ancient or Modern times, — laud them to 
the full measure of their deserts, — heap upon them the lan- 
guage of panegyric — exhaust the powers of eulogy j but 
compare them not to Wasuington. 

Mr. Lincoln came into power at the most fearful and 
critical period of our Grovernment, assuming responsibilities 
even weightier than those resting upon the illustrious Father 
of his Country, in first entering upon the duties of that 
office. The responsibilities he had to meet were such as to 
put to the utmost of their powers, the incomparable wisdom 
and patriotism of Washington ; the skill, statesmanship 
and ability of Hamilton, Clay and Webster; and the valor 
and heroism of Jackson, Taylor and Scott. Never before 
was mortal man called upon to meet such exigencies. The 
Country was at a most fearful crisis. U2:)on his action de- 
pended the '' lives and fortunes" — the peace and happiness, 
of thirty millions of freemen. The integrity of the Govern- 
ment, which had chosen him as its Executive Head, was to 
be maintained. The Union was threatened with dismem- 
berment, and presented a scene never before witnessed, of 
six of the States comprising it, claiming to have thrown off 
their allegiance and formed a separate and independent gov- 
ernment of their own ! A faction, hatched in the hell-born 
hotbeds of Treason, — smothered for a time by the undaunted 
patriotism of Andrew Jackson, and crushed, at a later day, 
by the serene and Washington-like statesmanship of Millard 
Fillmore, — had revived in a more formidable shape than 
on any former occasion their efforts to destroy the Govern- 
ment, and had actually put into operation their government 
purporting to embrace six of the sovereign States of The 



ORATION. 



Government of the United States of America ! Their 
government was organized. A president, vice-president, 
cabinet and congress were formed and had set up for them- 
selves. Commissioners were dispatched to Washington 
City to treat with the United States Government for terms 
of separation and their acknowledgment as an independent 
nation! It was indeed a mo.st cintical period. All felt it. 
Every patriot in the land trembled with forebodings for the 
result. Ttiere may have been insane and infamous factions 
of very bad men, both in the North and in the South, who 
witn:osed these scenes with fiendish joy; but subsequent 
ev,ats have proven, when the hour of triiil came, that that 
jlass, at both sections, proved false to their professed princi- 
ples, and true only to the instincts of the hyena, were found 
feasting over their country's misfortunes ! 

The public acts of all men are the legitimate theme 
of criticism; and in discharging the duties of this occasion, 
it may be necessary for me to give expression to views and 
opinions from which some m;iy difter with me. The truth 
of history requires it at my hands, and 1 siiall do so with ;ill 
respect to the illustrious and lamented dead, not desiring or 
Avishing to detract from a laurel of his well-earned fame. 

Mr. Lincoln took into his hands the reins of governnuMit 
with six sovereign States unrepresented in our national 
councils — with their delegations withdrawm from our na- 
tional congress. What was he to do ? A majority of the 
people in every State in the Union, with perhaps the solitai-y 
exception of South Carolina, undoubtedly desired his course 
should be such as to crush treason, avert civil war, and save 
the country. Many speculations arose as to the policy he 
would adopt. We all remember the painful anxiety the 
whole country experienced on that occasion. Mr. Lincoln 
left many people in doubt as to whatpolic^y he w^ould pursue 
in administering the government. His Inaugural Address, 



ORATION. 



9. 



tand the speeches made by him en route from Springfield to 
the National Capitol, were interpreted to mean different 
things in different latitudes. The country did not know for 
a long time whether it was his intention to " hold, possess 
and provision " Fort Sumter, or abandon it to the rebels. 
The Commissioners sent by the rebels were kept in Wash- 
ington lor a long period of time, when General Jackson or 
Mr. Fillmore would never have received them at all, or if 
they had, would have dismissed them before breakfast. 

Time passed oii. The first gun was fired at Sumter upon 
the flag that had waved in triumph and victory in every 
conflict. It was the first time it had ever been lowered to 
an enemy. The effect was electrical. The Avhole North 
was aroused with patriotic indignation, and a determination 
to vindicate the Flag of the Nation and retrieve— wipe out 
the insult. The South, with an unanimity almost as great, 
rallied as a man, after the first blow hadbeeu struck, to fight 
it out to independence as the only alternative. The flush and 
passion of the moment was aroused and acted upon without 
calculating the cost or the consequences. Virginia, Ten- 
nessee, North Carolina and Arkansas, which had steadfastly 
refused to join their fortunes to that of the seceded States, 
now faltered, and were "precipitated" into this mighty 
whirlpool of civil strife. The wildest commotion ruled. 
Chaos and confusion prevailed throughout the whole vast 
country. 

Mr. Lincoln occupied a very peculiar relation to the 
American people. He was the first Presideat ever elected 
by a sectional vote ; and in the election, fell short about one 
million votes of the popular vote, of receiving a majority. 
It was a most unfortunate occurrence for the American 
people, that by divisions, bickerings and strife, any candidate 
of a sectional party should have succeeded in that, or any 



10. OllATION. 



other national contest. Equally is it to be regretted that* 
Mr. Lincoln should have ever been the representative of a 
sectional party. 

A greater mistake was never made by the Southern leaders 
than when they used the pretext of his election — which was 
in strict conformity to the Constitution, — as a justification 
for secession. But at such a crisis as this, the country 
needed for her Chief Magistrate, not a new man, as Mr. 
Lincoln was, nor the representative of a sectional party, — 
but a national man in all his feelings and in all his surround- 
ings; a man of long experience in public affairs, and 
possessing the confidence of the whole American people in 
his ability, statesmanship and patriotism; — a man of the 
Andrew Jackson-Henry Clay-Daniel Webster stamp, in 
whose presence treason would not dare show its foul head. 
The election of such a man would have united the Union 
element of the South with the mighty Conservative feeling 
of the North, and made rebellion but a halter to those who 
dared try the experiment ! But had a man of that character 
been in the Presidential chair in the place of the perfidious, 
corrupt and infamous Buchanan, and had arrested the 
leading conspirators at the beginning of their work, and 
brought them to that summary punishment with which Gen. 
Jackson threatened the original Cataline of the tribe, in 
the dai'k days of South Carolina nullification, — there would 
have been a short road, and sure end, to all our national 
troubles, then and for all time to come. 

Elected by a sectional party, flushed with victory, and 
after a most heated and exciting contest, Mr'. Lincoln too 
often yielded to the unwise and unreasonable behests of 
that party, when the very men who were bringing " pres- 
sure " to bear upon him, were •politicians who were looking 
to such a policy as would advance their party and selfish 
schemes, leaving the country to take care of itself ! In such 



OHATION. 11. 



an hour of trial and peril to our glorious institutions, he 
should have spurned them with patriotic indignation, and 
never deviated from the remembrance that he had a Country 
to save and not a Party to serve. It was no time for party. 
Washington had no party when he subdued and put down 
the whiskey insurrection. General Jackson, though strictly 
a party man, lost all sight of party and party ism when 
South Carolina nullified our laws, and leaned upon the strong 
riffht-arm of Webster and Clay as his main defence in 
hewing down and crushing out the hydra-headed monster 
of ISTullification and Treason. The wise, good and great 
Fillmore, elected on a party ticket, atatime when disunion 
ran high and civil war threatened ns, in the hour of trial 
called around him Clay and Webster, Cass and Douglas, 
Clemens and Foote, and glorious old Sam Houston, and by 
their united efforts, averted the horrors of civil war, saved 
the country, and won the plaudits of all good men of all 
parties, for all time to come. Had Mr. Lincoln followed 
their wise example in this particular, there is not a doubt 
that he would have long since brought ua out of our 
present great troubles ; and as the diinculties he encountered 
were much greater and more complex than those presented 
to any of his predecessors, he would have, in like proportion, 
added to his renown in . the magnitude and extent and 
unparalleled greatness of the achievement, and his hold upon 
the gratitude and affections qf the American people. 

But this is not the occasion to indulge in criticism. Mr- 
Lincoln made mistakes — committed blunders ; and who of 
all our great and wise rulers have not ? But his blunders 
were not wilful nor his mistakes criminal — they were honest 
— errors of judgment — which it is " divine" in all who may 
differ — " to forgive." He was an honest man, 

" The noblost T:ork ■."'f God ;" 

of warm and generous impulses, and a kind and noble heart. 

" All the ends he aimed :,t. 
Were his Country's, his God's, and Truth's." 

" With malice towards none, with charity for all, firm in the 
" right as God gives us to see the right, let us bind up the 
" wounds of our country." ITobie sentiments, sublimely and 
most fitly spoKsn ! This lofty and pati-iotic expression is a 
key to the whole life and character of Abraham Lincoln. 



12. ORATION. 



It will ever stand a proud monument to his name. 
The reward so beautifully expressed by G-ray, will be most 
tenderly ascribed to him by millions of grateful hearts, to 

" Read his history in a nation's eyes." 

The present generation may not do him justice — may con- 
demn some of his public acts ; the American people may re- 
gret his policy on important subjects; yet impartial history 
will draw over his life the mantle to cover all his short- 
comifigs, and rising above sectional feeling and party rancor, 
do justice to his fame and honor to his memory. 

" To live with fame 

The gods allow to many; but to die. 
With equal lustre, is a blessingr Heaven 
Selects from all her choicest boons of Fate, 
And with a sparing hand, on few bestows." 

Whatever diiference may have existed as to the policy by 
which he was governed, it shoidd now be enough for any 
honest man and p^riot to know that he was actuated by 
good motives, high resolves and an honest heart. " The 
restoration of the Union in the shortest way," as he wrote 
one of his friends, was no doubt the ruling wish and desire 
of his life. The latter portion of his days were especially 
devoted to the accomplishment of that great end — the 
crowning glory of his fame, and what would have resulted 
in the speedy peace of the nation, and the eternal and ever- 
lasting good and happiness of our whole people. He showed 
in that great instance that he could 

" Look on rebellion 

In the calm light of mild philosophy ," 

and in a spirit only of love and patriotism, grant such terms 
of pacification and reconciliation as would bind up the 
wounds of a bleeding country, make our people united and 
happy, and place our glorious Union upon a firm basis from 
which it could never be again shaken by all the storms of 
/ party faction that may hereafter howl and rage around it. 
Had Mr. Lincoln's life been prolonged thirty days, it is 
believed there would not have been found a rebel in arms 
against the Grovernment. It is understood his plans for 
peace were entirely acceptable to General Lee, the greatest, 
wisest and best of the Southern leaders. The Southern 
people have long looked to him to lead them out of their 
great diflS.culties ; and reposing confidence more fully in him 
than any one else, there is every reason to believe that they 



ORATION. 13, 



would have embraced the opportunity of following his 
example of laying down their arms and returning to the 
fold of their fathers, with rapturous joy and delight. Then 
who can estimate the magnitude and extent of the nation's 
loss, at such an hour ? Who can fathom the depths of the 
•misery, ruin and desolation that may flow from that awful 
calamity to the American people, and especially to the people 
of the South ? If there be an human being in this broad 
land, who does not feel his loss — the loss of the natiofi — of 
the cause of free government, — in the untimely death of 
Abraham Lincoln, that being is to be pitied, and is 
unworthy to live in a land of liberty. 

Mr. Lincoln was a Eepresentative-Man of the great 
North- West; and his elevation to the Presidency was a 
most remarkable illustration of the genius and workings of 
our institutions — showing how the humblest, by dint of 
energy and perseverance, may reach the highest positions 
of honor and trust within the gift of the people. I stand 
to-day upon the banks of the mighty Mississippi, almost 
immediately opposite, and in sight of the house where, 
thirty-four years ago, he was employed by a venerable and 
respected citizen now living in Memphis, in chopping cord 
wood at seventy-five cents per cord! In less than thirty 
years from that date, Abraham Lincoln was President of 
the United States of America ! 

The instance of his successor, Andrew Johnson, is no less 
striking an illustration. His history we all know; the 
difficulties he encountered and triumphed over, we are ail 
familiar with. With an education derived entirely without 
the aid of schools, he commenced life, poor and penniless 
— an apprentice boy, without friends, and in less than a 
quarter of a century from the time he is first honored by 
the people with an election, we find him Euler of the first 
nation of the earth! It is now to be hoped, that as he has 
ever yet shown himself, equal to the occasion, in this great 
trial of the Nation's salvation and Peace— the People's 
welfare and Posterity's happiness, he will prove himself 
worthy the successor of Washington, and go down to all 
coming time, as the Great Instrument in the hands of 
Providence in restoring law and order, peace and quiet to a 



14. ORATION. 



distracted land. He has but to cany into effect Mr. 
Lincoln's and the Country's plan to accomplish that end. 

I am one of those who have ever been opposed to the 
damnable heresy of secession. For ten years, as the editor 
of a public journal, I fought it with all my might and power. 
The evils that have followed in the train of the sad experi- 
ment, I long felt would be of the consequences, only they 
far outreached my calculations, as they did those of every 
other 'person. I have ever believed there was never a real 
difference of opinion or conflicting interest between the 
North and the South suflScient ever to justify a clash of arms; 
and I am as firmly of the opinion now, that with the proper 
wise policy, that conflict would never have taken place. A 
miserable, canting, hypocritical, insane faction of fanatics 
and trading politicians on the one side, and a contemptible, 
worthless, disgraceful band of fire-brands on the other, have, 
by co-operating, stirred and agitated the public mind to such 
a degree — brought politics to such a low standard as to drive 
from the councils of the nation our wisest statesmen and best 
men, who would not enter into such competition, and left 
the affairs of the Government in the hands of unscrupulous 
political hacks and unprincipled partizans who would have 
ruined any country on earth. It was by the American 
people allowing such cliques to rule the country that we were 
" precipitated " headlong into this awful and terrible war. 

Look back a few years and see the result on our institu- 
tions, worked by this disgraceful and infamous band of 
drivelling traitors. Take a glance at our national councils 
in 1860, immediately preceding the breaking out of the war, 
and behold the instigators — the very small manner of men 
they wer®. There we behold the seat in the United States 
Senate, once rendered illustiious by the august presence of 
Daniel Webster, filled by a fawning hypocrite and cringing 
coward, who is unworthy to unloosen the 8hoe*latchets of 
his immortal predecessor ! The classic and eloquent Everett 
was borne down beneath the black and surging waves of 
fanaticism, and the position he adorned in the Senate is now 
filled by a man who would scarcely confer credit on a seat 
in his State legislature. The desk that was once occupied 
Iby the towering genius of the illustrious Clay, w&.b at that 



ORATION. 15. 



time vacantly represented by a Bmall politician who signed 
himself Lazarus "W. Powell ! The Wrights, Choates, 
Evanses, Casses, Woodburys, Hunts, — the Eiveses, Bad- 
gers, Bells, Claytons, Berriens, Mangums and Critten- 
DENS, were driven from public life into retiracy by the foul 
machinations of this set of base political intriguers and party 
jugglers. All good men truly felt the lofty sentiment uttered 
by the noble Cato, 

When vico prevaila and impious men bear sway, 
The post of honor is a private station I 

Had the people, the solid, conservative people of the North 
and the South been true to their duty and the great trusts 
confided to their keeping, they would have rose in their 
might and power and hui'led these fomentcrs of discord, 
these pestiferous wranglers of strife, from the places they 
were dishonoring and disgracing, and with the mark of 
Cain upon their brows, driven them forth from the country 
whose peace and quiet they were disturbing and whose 
liberties they were seeking to subvert and destroy. 

But they were allowed to accomplish -their work. They 
rushed the country to the brink of ruin; and when the hour 
of trial comes, they are found seeking " contracts " or 
sneaking into "soft places" where danger is "a/ar off!" 
Look at the instigators — the originators before the war — the 
demons and fiends who were so anxious for it, and where 
are they now and where have they been all the time ? But 
few, indeed, of them were " precipitated " into the " revo- 
lution," and but little of their precious " blood been let," 
although they were so anxious for -'precipitation" and 
"blood letting." History will pillory all such high, and 
consign them to remotest posterity in the eternal infamy 
which they have so justly won. 

Better would it have been to have adjusted all our troubleg 
before the war and without war. They could have been 
settled easier then than they can be settled now, and there 
was never any real obstacle in the way, with the people, to 
prevent that settlement. The difficulties and obstacles were 
with small politicians who were about to lose office. 

To the countless number of the gallant dead of the South, 
whose bones line and whiten the whole vast country, from the 
bloody fields of Gettysburg to the distant confines of Texas— 



16. 



ORATION. 



from the savannahs of the Sonth, across to the plains of the far 
distant West;— to the incalculable loss in property;— the suf- 
ferings, misery distress and wretchedness to which ourpeople 
have been the dupes and victims and sufferers;— to all of these, 
after so long and bloody a struggle, is now to be numbered 
the loss of the peculiar institution, for the better security 
and protection of which the war was commenced ! The too 
eager <rrasp for the shadow has been followed by a loss of the 
suh&tance ^nd.^ great deal more: the foolish contention for 
abstract "rights in the territories," has resulted m losing 
lis our acknowledged and undisputed— antZ would have been, 
forever undisturbed, -x\g^t^ to the same property, in the 

States. , r. - • 4.1 ^ 

We now have to meet the Keality-stare the fact m the 
face that Slavery has perished-that the institution is for- 
ever blotted from our Government. Such is the result of 
an Event, the inevitable consequence of Revolution. 
Whether pleasant or unpleasant, we have now to open our 
eyes to a realization of the Fact as it exists. That is what 
we have now to deal with , and let us make the best of it. 
Ifthe integrity of the Government, which our forefatheri 
bequeathed to us as the richest legacy ever granted to 
any people on earth, can be maintained and estabhshed, 
BstoFervetua!-\iy^^ can have PEi.CE,-Zei it go. It is to 
be reo-retted that our Government should have ever 
received a blow to mar the harmony of its magnificent 
workings by the infraction of ihe rights of the. State* to 
re-ulate and control their domestic institutions in their own 
way, subject only to the guarantees vouchsafed to them by 
the^^rcat Charter of our Eights, the Constitution ;-but 
bettel- that, than lose all; better give up any part, than 
yield the whole. Give us the Government of Washington 
' ^..^e^^restored to its original integrity, and Peaoi, and 
the American people can commence anew, and with renewed 
energy, vigor and enterprise, work out the Great Destiny 
which God in his Goodness and Wisdom marked out lor 
this chosen land of Liberty. 









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